Who says that apart from the space race, Russia isn't at the technological races? The Kremlin's secretive Government Communications Agency, known as FAPSI, has said it is marketing the world's best mobile phone encryption technology.

"Similar foreign devices only encrypt voice while our phone transmits speech, data and facsimile, all encrypted and virtually impossible to bug, in a modern GSM standard," says Mr Sergei Popov.

The fastest computer would need hundreds of thousands of years to break the 256-bit code, he adds.

And just in case those Euro-criminals are reading The Margin, the Russians say they will only sell the encryption box to registered legal entities who have a special licence.